Fun Facts #6: Opera is for Perverts

[Stavros]

I have been going to the opera since I was 11 years old, and I am a pervert. I wonder if the two are related?

Case 1: Puccini: Madama Butterfly.
In Puccini's opera, an American officer, Pinkerton takes part in what we would call a 'marriage of convenience' to Coi-Cio-San, the 'Butterfly' of the opera title. She is convinced this is love for life, but he goes back to Japan having determined to marry a 'proper' American wife. In Act 2 Cio-Cio-San pines for her love, in Act 3 he returns with American wife, devastating Cio-Cio-San who commits suicide, after a tearful (and musical) farewell to the son she bore with Pinkerton.
Fun Fact -when Cio-Cio-San and Pinkerton are 'united' in love at the end of Act 1, she is 15 years old.
Don't tell the Daughters of the American Revolution, or sanctified di Santis, or Marge or Lauren!

Case 2: Travesti Roles
How many roles are there in Handel operas where the men are sung by women in 'trousers' or 'tights'? Too many, rather like Handel's opera. Was Handel gay? Some think so, and if he was, there were plenty of Molly Houses for him to sneak into in 18th century London, were he not so famous. He was at least six foot tall, and lived in the same house on Brook St in London's Mayfair where Jimi Hendrix also lived -the museum there is worth visiting. If you are not sure what a Molly House is, this link will help.
Miss Muff's molly house in Whitechapel — East End Women's Museum (eastendwomensmuseum.org)


Case 3: Incest
In the second opera in Wagner's Ring Cycle, Die Walküre, Sieglinde and Siegmund discover they are brother and sister -for some reason they didn't realise this when they first laid eyes on each other -depending on the production, they are pretty much laying on top of each other by the end of the first Act, while in the third, after Siegmund's death, Sieglinde announces she is pregnant with their child, Siegfried, who appears in the next two operas. Problem is, Sieglinde and Siegmund were the children of top God Wotan, who has a daughter Brünnhilde, who protected Sieglinde and Siegmund and for this disobedience is stripped of her Godhead, and put on a rock surrounded by fire so only a hero can save her and marry her -this happens to be Siegfried. Hang on...so Siegfried is the grandson of Wotan, and falls in love and sort of marries his Aunt, Brünnhilde? Is that why the world comes to an end at the climax of Götterdämmerung? Probably. I am sure Marge and Lauren would approve. Of the ending.

Case 3: Arabella, Opera by Richard Strauss (1933)
A Viennese man bankrupted by gambling, decides to sell his eldest daughter Arabella to an old army Buddy called Mandryka -yep, an 18-year old is being married off to a 60-something for money. Hmmm...meanwhile, Arabella is courted by various young men she doesn't think are good enough for her, including Matteo -more about him later...-but has noted a mature man who keeps following her in the streets of Vienna -Memo to 21st century: it's called Stalking. As it turns out, the creep stalking Arabella is the son of Mandryka, and when he visits Arabella's dad it is to inform him that the elder Mandryka is dead, but he, of the same name, is interested. He gives the bankrupt dad a wad of cash, and the deal is all but sealed.

Problem is Arabella has a young sister called Zdenka who dresses as a boy because dad can't afford two girls...and Zdenka fancies Matteo. At a ball in Act 2, Zdenka claims Arabella wants to see Matteo 'in private' and gives him the key to Arabella's room, something Mandryka overhears that drives him crazy as he thinks he has been betrayed. In Act 3 they all confront each other back at the hotel where Matteo has had an hour or so of passion with Arabella, obviously in the dark as he thought it was Arabella -what? Say that again! No, I don't think so. Anyway, at the climax, Zdenka, now dressed as a girl and in a negligee rushes from the room to confess she duped Matteo and Arabella is still a virgin and she can marry Mandryka and they'll all be rich and happy.
Curious -Matteo makes the step from being best buddies with a boy called Zdenko to being the lover of this boy-into-girl Zdenka without so much as a 'what just happened?' Evidently he likes it..oh yes I forgot. He/She is 15 years old.

And all set to the most wonderful music! Gotta love being a perv.

Here is Renee Fleming with a somewhat Femboy Zdenka in one of Act 1's most famous moments-

[Stavros]

Just noticed the error in Butterfly -Pinkerton goes back to the US, not Japan!

[jerseygirlangie]

And don't forget that many early operas had parts specifically written to be sung by castrati !

[Stavros]

And don't forget that many early operas had parts specifically written to be sung by castrati !

So true, but not these days...

[boner]

Some opera singers are really hot

[Stavros]

Some opera singers are really hot

Indeed....and often voluptuous too...

[boner]

Indeed....and often voluptuous too...

Anna Netreko was one of the singers I had in mind! I'm not in love with her politics but she's gorgeous.

[Stavros]

Marisol Montalvo is in fine form here, in the opening song of Pli Selon Pli, [Fold upon fold] by Pierre Boulez, a piece of music of which Stravinsky wrote that it is 'monotonously pretty, and pretty monotonous...' from a composer who knew a lot about monotony....

[Lovecox]

I saw this hilarious definition of an opera: "An opera is a place where someone gets stabbed and instead of dying they sing."

[Stavros]

I saw this hilarious definition of an opera: "An opera is a place where someone gets stabbed and instead of dying they sing."

True! Tristan is stabbed in the groin at the end of Act 2 of Tristan und Isolde, and then spends most of Act 3 dying while singing on his own (but what singing!). Rodrigo is shot in Verdi's Don Carlo, and immediately bursts into song, a plea for the freedom of the people of Flanders, oppressed by Catholic Spain- and then he dies. The Swedish King Gustav is stabbed in Verdi's Un Ballo in Maschera, and dies, but not before a rather beautiful plea for reconciliation amongst his enemies. If you're gonna go, go out singing....